A Very MAD Blog
Month
The FCC just voted to let ISPs have unrestricted control over the content they let you see and share on the internet and the speed they give it to you.
www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/12/14/16776154/fcc-net-neutrality-vote-results-rules-repealed
Hopefully this wont last long otherwise I see a lot of problems popping up mostly arround corporate greed.
We hope to change the users’ thought patterns to make for healthier thinking and management of stress. We want to show that stress is a tangible thing that you can see and change. We did this by creating a window into the user’s minds.
This project is a mix between interactive art and psychology all tied together in technology. In our display, we want to show people mindfulness without showing them mindfulness. We want them to discover it by interacting with our piece. We creatively brought art and psychology together to solve a very big issue in today’s society.
“Mindfulness is a skill that allows us to be less reactive to what is happening in the moment. It is a way of relating to all experience—positive, negative and neutral—such that our overall suffering is reduced and our sense of well-being increases. To be mindful is to wake up, to recognize what is happening in the present moment. We are rarely mindful. We are usually caught up in distracting thoughts or in opinions about what is happening in the moment. This is mindlessness.” - (Germer, 2004)
I drew my ideas from different areas and stuck them together. I have some knowledge in neuroscience and psychology; so, I contributed that to the group, I also have experience in circuitry and microcontrollers, and an understanding of design and user interaction. This allowed me to be more creative by drawing my ideas from multiple fields. I did look at a lot of other interactive art displays such as Waterlight Graffiti, art galleries and on the website Pinterest (Interactive Exhibition, 2017). However, all of the other interactive projects I could find were about either directly affecting the viewers’ mental state or the user directly affecting the work. I did not find any showing the users mental state and then changing it, I know something similar exists, however, I have not found it.
Simmons (2014) book Interactive Art Therapy, showed multiple interesting interactive exercises made for psychology. This was interesting to see how they can use similar things to help patients. By reading through these different exercises it helped give me an insight into how real psychologists could use our display. “Interactive art differs from static art such as paintings because interactive art entails reciprocal response or influence between artwork and audience” - (Seevinck, 2017). Overall, from an artistic side and also a psychological side, our project shows a glimpse into the mind of the user and has the potential to change a user’s view about stress.
Our Brief: “Create an Immersive translation of an individual’s state of mind as an introspective experience” Which summaries to taking someone’s thoughts and emotions and making them into a physical experience, we went with stress in the final iteration. Our main idea is that by making the users’ thoughts a physical tangible thing, they can be just that. By making the stress into a storm that you can control, it indirectly shows how you can control stress in the same way.
We hope to help reduce stress in this stress-fueled world by a metaphor. We have a storm behind a window that reacts to your stress and you can put all your worries into it. By calming the storm, you are calming yourself and the window is like a window into your own mind. We want the user to realize they can separate themselves from the storm that is their stress and see stress as a tangible thing and hopefully, therefore, be able to reduce or manage it better. We want the user to type their worries into the tablet on the desk and watch them appear on the screen and then put their finger on the scanner and try to calm the storm. Thus, changing their view on stress and worries.
The final iteration of this project embodies the concept and brief by incorporating many elements. By using a real window that we are projecting onto rather than a screen with a window and a desk with photos and plants, we are adding to the realism factor making it more believable. We are using heart rate and an input terminal to get an idea of the users’ state of mind and then translating that into the physical real world that is how the projected storm reacts. The storm changes in intensity by getting louder and the rain getting faster, as well as, the addition of thunder.
The brief changed throughout the course of this project as we refined and generated new ideas. The final iteration of this project is nothing like I could have imagined at the beginning. This I think shows that the creative process has been active. To help the creative process we started the project not knowing each other apart from areas of interest. This means we could easily make creative ideas off each other and we all had a different angle to go from and different knowledge to draw off. This helped us think outside the box to best solve the problem and focus on how to make the project a reality. This lead to Storm, the final iteration of our project.
Baer, R. (2010). Assessing Mindfulness and Acceptance Processes in Clients. New Harbinger Publications.
Germer, C. (2004). What is Mindfulness? INSIGHT JOURNAL, 24-29.
Interactive Exhibition. (2017). Retrieved from Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.nz/explore/interactive-exhibition
Seevinck, J. (2017). Emergence in Interactive Art. Springer.
Simmons, L. L. (2014). Interactive Art Therapy: “No Talent Required” Projects. Routledge.
We ended up with a wooden window with a piece of material on the back so we could backward project a storm. This also has storm sounds through a set of speakers. We also have a heart rate monitor and a tablet on the table. The storm changes when you type in words and also changes with your heart rate.
The project looks completely different to what we originally thought of and kept changing up until the last day. It has even changed since I took this picture.
The addition of a heart rate sensor was originally difficult and inaccurate but seems to be working a lot better now thanks to a mix of my case idea and Liam’s programming skills.
When we decided on backward projection we needed to find the right fabric and the branded stuff is a ridiculous price. Luckily another group was doing a similar thing and they pointed me towards a cheap fabric shop. ROAD TRIP! Kale and I went and looked through the shop for a good while and eventually found it. I also brought double what we needed because if you don’t you’ll end up needing it. I ironed It and staple gunned it to the frame tight and it looked good.
The window was originally thought to be placed in a wall we would build but this changed to a hanging design. We had a few problems here mostly the pole we brought was too small for the stands and the chain was unstable and fell in testing. I managed to fix both of these. The size of the pole I fixed with some cut up puzzle floor foam mats that I wrapped around the pole where the stand connects. I also made the chain a lot safer by turning the hooks that the window hung off, into loops by bending them around, which was a lot harder than it sounds.
After this, we moved it into position and set up the projector. Then I worked out how to change the projector so it was mirrored so everything was the right way around. Then another group decided to take up most of the studio space moving our projector so we relocated and re-setup.
The PC and projector I set up in a way that if the power was cut for some reason it would automatically turn back on and auto start all of the software; at the same time as not sleep, shutdown, or update.
The Arduino soldering also went well and we didn’t have any problems apart from length which just meant I needed to extend the wires a bit. I managed to solder around the case well and make it not look terrible
The last thing on the list is PC. I bought a spare PC in to use and tried to make the cables as tidy as possible making good use of extension cables.
I had a huge interest in using EEG for this project and did a lot of programming and research into using it for measuring stress. However, the EEG we were going to use for this project stopped functioning and we couldn't get another in time.
I also spent a large amount of time trying to work with the connect in processing, about a week. It was a nightmare. If the drivers weren't crashing, the libraries and APIs were. Eventually, I ended up just using a webcam and got the same effect but it took a matter of hours rather than days. My end goal was a program that gave a number out between 1 and 10 that showed the amount of movement of a subject. 0 being no movement and 10 being starjumps. However, this code wasn’t used in the final submission.
The stain was a fairly last minute decision and was rushed. I fell it could be better but it will do the job. Either way, it looks a bit better than plain wood. However, some stain go onto the fabric and it needed to be removed (luckily I brought double) I planned to redo it but it was done when I next saw it. It wasn’t ironed this time and wasn’t completely tight. It doesn’t look as good as it did but I hope with the projector on and lights off, no one will notice.
Something I seem to always struggle with is making time to blog. For me, it takes so much energy and I need to get into a certain mood to do it. I still have about 10 other half done related posts in my drafts folder that I didn’t get to finish. I definitely fell I could have blogged more.
The last problem that we are still dealing with is the program freezing. I blame windows and wish I installed Linux like I usually would for a project like this, but, too late now.
I learned a lot more about creative teams, as much as I hate working with people in a group; It is essential to the creative process or at least helps speed it up. Having other people helps trigger new ideas and also weed out bad ones. This works especially well if you haven’t worked together before like I explained in my first ctec503 post - http://blog.epsilum.co.nz/post/164504325489.
I also learned a lot from the research I did because of this project. I built on other things that I researched in the past, such as EEG, Neurology, and Japanese concepts.
This was a long project, but, it went fast! I’m glad to say its coming to an end but I definitely had some fun making this with the group, all of whom I didn’t know at all before this project started. A lot went wrong and could be better but overall I am happy with the outcome.
Our population is currently at around 7.5 billion and “The world has added one billion people since 2005 and two billion since 1993.” It is predicted we will reach a population of 9.8 billion by 2050. (United Nations, 2017).
According to Gimenez (2012), we Currently have enough food to feed 10 billion people and people starve because of greed. Furthermore, Edward O. Wilson (2002) also said that the earth can currently support 10 billion people in his book ‘The Future of Life’. However, neither of these sources linked back to any research or where they got their numbers. Alternatly, Waggoner (1996) says we should also consider and leave room for nature to survive, to do this we would need to drastically change our habits.
I believe (and I am not alone) that we can easily feed everyone on this planet with our current food productions. So why do people go hungry? Three main reasons Greed, Wastage, and poverty gaps. “The global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of ‘primary product equivalents.’ Total food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes.” (Food wastage: Key facts and figures, n.d.). The average person eats 500kg per year (How Much Food Does the Average Person Eat per Year, 2013) so dividing that from the edible part of the food waste, that is enough to feed 2,600,000 people for a year.
The solution to wase food is up to you. How much food do you throw out or is left uneaten? how often do you overeat? If you own a business, how much food goes to waste there?
One solution to growing more food without destroying more forests is vertical farming.
With vertical farming, you can grow a lot more in a smaller land area. This has shown to be very effective when adding hydroponics and LED lighting. This video goes into the basics of the idea:
“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” - Mahatma Gandhi
Food wastage: Key facts and figures. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 24, 2017, from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196402/icode/
Gimenez, E. H. (2012, 02 05). We Already Grow Enough Food For 10 Billion People — and Still Can’t End Hunger. Retrieved from The Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/world-hunger_b_1463429.html
How Much Food Does the Average Person Eat per Year. (2013). Retrieved 10 24, 2017, from A to Z of Brain, Mind and Learning: http://health.learninginfo.org/how-much-food-average-person-eat-per-year.htm
United Nations, D. o. (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. New York: United Nations.
Waggoner, P. E. (1996). How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature? Daedalus, The Liberation of the Environment, 125(3), 73-93. Retrieved 10 23, 2017, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027371
Wilson, E. O. (2002). The Future of Life. Paw Prints.
How do excessively Creative People Live?
Creatively! Creative people tend to do the following things according to some of the links below: They are extremely passionate about everything they do, and might not do things that they aren’t passionate about; They tend to daydream or get lost in thought; they enjoy solitude, more introverted people tend to be more creative; They have an openness to exploring new ideas and learning/experiencing new things; they tend to be more observant; They have better mindfulness; and they turn bad times into an advantage and build creative ideas from these experiences. This all boils down to thinking differently from the majority.
However, some other sources such as telentsmart sats some other things creative people do, like wake up early or work to a strict schedule.
So, How should creative people live?
More Creatively!
Do everything creatively!
For example, look at how this restaurant serves its deserts creatively.
By doing everything creatively, you enforce all of your creative thoughts and ideas.
Studies have also shown the benefits of having your own creative space to work, such as a workshop or studio and keeping to a schedule. But, at the same time being flexible to your ideas.
How can you live creatively? The following video raises some good points:
“we’re living in an age of information overload and the crisis of fake news” we need to stay open-minded and make our own ideas from our own research. see nothing as truth, all truths could change. See a news article? try to find their sources and make your own conclusions. Make new ideas even if they challenge the standard ways or ideas of life, it is these ideas that will either change the world or enforce the methods in place.
References:
https://blog.musicbed.com/articles/how-a-creative-person-should-manage-their-day-to-day-99u/257
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/858670600/tillera-minimal-and-seamless-device-for-tracking-y
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249931
http://www.talentsmart.com/articles/6-Unusual-Habits-of-Exceptionally-Creative-People-2147446622-p-1.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/creativity-habits_n_4859769.html
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/ten_habits_of_highly_creative_people
http://web.mit.edu/STS.035/www/PDFs/think.pdf
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90137664/the-reason-your-brain-loves-wide-products
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5OJZ8XRzvKXellrWnlQeV9WX2s/view
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/navigating-information-overload/
What is Creativity? Is that even an answerable question? The dictionary says Creativity is “The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”- http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creativity
I decided to ask a friend of mine and she said “being creative is the expression of an idea that cannot be fully defined simply by describing it” I found this interesting as it makes sense yet it differs from the definition.
To me, creativity is the result of thinking openly and expressing ideas that some may never uncover.
So, How do you grow a creativity? How do you become creative?
according to https://thenextweb.com/creativity/2017/06/21/11-brutal-truths-about-creativity-that-no-one-wants-to-talk-about/#.tnw_L5nbPTen You already are creative, everyone is creative. I think the problem is a mix of self-criticism and close-mindedness.
The best ways to expand your creativity seems to be teaching your brain new things and opening your brain to new ideas. As said a previous post, music can increase creativity. However, not just learning an instrument but just listening to it as was said here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/09/06/listening-to-happy-music-may-boost-creativity-study-says/#79ad72d63357
I want to challenge you to grab a pencil and draw something or pick up any instrument and try to play it.
Take this video as an example:
However, Being creative is not just all about arts. Creative thinking helps with everything from problem-solving to living a happier life. - https://www.bestpracticeconsulting.com.au/_blog/Articles/post/Fostering_creativity_in_the_workplace/
My conclusion is, no matter who you are or where you are from, you should try being more creative as it could improve your life.
Music is becoming less and less taught in schools in western countries according to the following video. He also says music is all about patterns and using them creatively. He uses dubstep to show the patterns of music and frequencies. He also says how learning music helps with creative thinking which could boost grades.
Below are some Creative Music Videos that I thought could be related as they are doubbly creative.
Below is a video showing sound being visualized:
There is creativity in music and by learning a musical instrument you are expanding your brain and your creativity. This is why I took up the melodica, a strange instrument, but, I feel it fits me perfectly. We need more teaching of music in schools and not just of classical western style. The more creative the better!
For starters, what is the purpose of a blog anyway?
A blog has many purposes such as a company updating customers on progress or new products, a person with something interesting to share like traveling, or a student trying to pass a creative paper…
Blogs are used as a tool to give the same bit of information to a set audience easily and repetitively. For this purpose, they have other good uses as well, such as a portfolio.
So, if your goal is spreading information to a set group of people, how do you make the perfect blog post?
The first three things you should think about is who is your audience, what is the purpose of this blog post, and what do you want the reader to do or feel after reading it. (for example, a blog post aimed at my fellow students about how to make a decent post)
After figuring these out, if your goal is to make people read your post, the most important thing is a good title to draw people in and make the reader interested. One way to do this is to get them hooked with a question that they want the answer to. Like instead of ‘How to Make The Perfect Blog Post’ I put ‘ What Makes The Perfect Blog Post?’ this makes the reader curious, however, both are good titles in my opinion.
Next is a decent intro, something to draw the audience in and keep them reading.
After all of that is out of the way, comes your main content followed by an optional call to action. The content should also contain a decent summary. With your content, you should add images and graphics to split up the text and make it more enjoyable to read. This graphic should be related and useful to the content.
Lastly, check grammar and spelling. As boring as it sounds it is essential to a decent blog post. I personally use as many tools as I can to help, like Grammarly.
From another angle what shouldn't you do? Here is an interesting video I found:
References:
https://www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/2015/10/anatomy-of-a-blog-post.html
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-write-blog-post-simple-formula-ht
Lives are busier than ever! “According to a study by the American Psychological Association, 18 to 35 year olds are the most stressed out generation ever—earning ourselves the nickname “Generation Stress.”” - https://relevantmagazine.com/life/millennials-are-most-stressed-out-generation-and-s-spiritual-problem “stress is caused by three primary factors—money, work, and the economy” - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-15/americans-just-broke-the-psychologists-stress-record
Stress on its own will kill you, mentally if not physically. However, part of stress (at least for me) is not having enough time in the day. A solution often used is to reduce sleep to get everything done, allowing us to relax. The problem with this is how sleep affects the body.
“Sleep deprivation actually causes the brain to feed off of neurons and synaptic connections“ - http://nypost.com/2017/05/30/the-brain-literally-eats-itself-when-its-overtired-study/
“Your body needs sleep, just as it needs air and food to function at its best. During sleep, your body heals itself and restores its chemical balance. Your brain forges new connections and helps memory retention. Without enough sleep, your brain and body systems won’t function normally. It can also dramatically lower your quality of life. A review of 16 studies found that sleeping for less than 6 to 8 hours a night increases the risk of early death by about 12 percent.” - https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-body
“If sleep deprivation continues long enough, you could start having hallucinations—seeing or hearing things that aren’t there. A lack of sleep can also trigger mania in people who have manic depression.“ Which I have experienced. More than once I have gone 3 days without sleeping and the most I have gone is 4.
From this research, I have learned I need to make a change to my sleeping habits or it might actually kill me. Another factor is, sleeping statistically also makes you more productive making any excuses for not sleeping irrelevant.
The article “Is It Time To Go Back To Basics With Writing Instruction? “ by mind shift, says many students struggle with expressing their ideas through writing and many students are at a low writing level. They speak of a teaching style/course that teaches from the basics.
I believe writing is a limited medium, yes it is important, no it shouldn't dictate everything. In Highschools, most subjects (at least the graded ones) are either marked in math or English from my experience. If you do not excel at Literacy or Numeracy, you can be extremely limited. Another problem is the content as is introduced in the following music video:
Sure, it is a bit controversial, but, he raises good points. School hasn’t changed in over a century. We have made huge advancements and the whole world is a different place now, yet the school system hasn’t changed at all. This is talked about very well here.
So what can we do? We need to change, the world is going in the way of creativity, most of the factory line jobs that school was designed for don’t exist anymore and the rest won’t exist in the near future. School needs to stop killing creativity (and it does) and start making it stronger. According to the following article, Creative jobs will be the last to be automated.
http://fortune.com/2015/04/22/robots-white-collar-ai/
Our only way forward as a species is to be more creative and remove greed. Those together could solve all the worlds problems and they already are.
Related Blog Posts:
Investigation: http://blog.epsilum.co.nz/post/165778762014/so-i-went-to-the-library-for-a-couple-of-hours
Research: http://blog.epsilum.co.nz/post/165929646609/looking-deeper
Documentation: http://blog.epsilum.co.nz/post/165950877374/connections
Review:
My Chosen Books are: School Journal Number Two 1971 Part 3, Everyday Electronics Jan-Feb Apr-June 1991, The Listener 1988-89, SAS Survival Guide, and Veterinary Physiology. At first, these books look totally unrelated and are in completely different categories. However, after much research and digging; they have quite a few connections. The School Journal, Veterinary Physiology and The SAS Survival Guide are all related to teaching the reader something important. The School Jurnal is aimed at primary school children and teaches a wide range of subjects from English to geography, the SAS Survival guide is all about staying alive in any situation you might find yourself in, whereas, Veterinary Physiology is the only one that is aimed at academics and teaches a high level of the subject.
My favorite quote from the school journal is “Tigers bathe but cats hate water”
The Listener and Everyday Electronics are more about reporting. The Listener is a Newspaper that was a collection of newspapers from the listener between 1988 and 1989. Seeing the styles used back then and the stories were very interesting and Everyday Electronics is like a subscription magazine and gives a good idea about the electronic devices of the time and also the electronic knowledge of the time. Most of the devices I saw are similar to what you would find in kits in electronic stores now, both look very similar though. They also both display products and latest breakthroughs.
Both SAS Survival Guide and Veterinary Physiology can be used in emergencies. SAS Survival Guide has a lot of information about certain situations and getting out alive and Veterinary Physiology has literally everything you could need to know to diagnose a problem with an animal such as a cat or dog.
The Listener, School Jurnal, and Everyday Electronics are quite old. all published between 1988 and 1991. All of these were found on the bottom floor of the library.
I really struggled to connect all of these together, the best I could get is they all contain a lot of information and they all are interesting to me.
Something I did not expect when researching these books is how far down the rabbit hole you can go, this I realized when writing my research blog post. Everyday Electronics mentions a machine that emits pink noise which is advertised to put you into a deep sleep, I then found myself finding the formula for pink noise, a 10-hour video of pink noise, and a lot of science behind it; including a paper from the 1880s. The dream machine I found very interesting. according to Everyday Electronics, this emits pink noise, pink noise is advertised here to hypnotically induce deep sleep and claims dentist have used it to pull out teeth without anesthetic, sounds unethical but interesting so I did a bit of digging. Pink Noise is “Pink noise is acoustical energy distributed uniformly by octave throughout the audio spectrum (the range of human hearing, approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz). Most people perceive pink noise as having uniform spectral power density – the same apparent loudness at all frequencies. In pink noise, the total sound power in each octave is the same as the total sound power in the octave immediately above or below it. An octave is a band whose highest frequency is exactly twice its lowest frequency.” - http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/pink-noise
I can relate all of these books through research and going way outside the box, so far from the box that you cant even see it anymore.
The school Journal could have been used to teach the people that then went on to write Everyday Electronics. During their teen years, they could have started reading the listener. After doing a bit of electronic work they could have decided to get into veterinary studies and used Veterinary Physiology as their first textbook. While at uni they decide they want to know some more about how to survive certain situations with all the commotion going on in the world so they pick up the SAS survival guide.
Another way these books relate without making it into a story is through content. The SAS Survival Guide shows first aid skills for humans whereas the Veterinary Physiology book covers it for animals. The listener covers events where first aid was needed and Everyday electronics has some examples of the latest medical tech of the time. The School Jurnal, however, contains little medical knowledge as it is aimed at children, but, it does have basic biology knowledge.
In conclusion, These books have no connection to each other at first glance, however, after thinking deeply and research they can be related. The further down the rabbit hole you go the more connections you find.
So I made a diagram trying to map out the connections between my chosen books and this was the result:
It was very hard finding words to connect all of the books so I connected a few at a time with very broad words.
Then I factored in my research and found that there are a lot of indirect ways this information could relate, leading me to research what else was going on during those time periods. For example, The owner of The Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company could have been listening to pink noise at the same time as reading a news paper similar to the listener about the woman's’ vote being allowed and possibly redesigning his house to be more secure like it describes in the SAS guide.
I wondered whether any of the directors signed a pension for woman’s vote and eventually found the names listed here http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc01Cycl-t1-body-d4-d19-d2.html then I searched on this database https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/petition none of their names were there but it was an interesting find.
I went a bit further into the history and was shocked at “They warned that any disturbance of the ‘natural’ gender roles of men and women might have terrible consequences. The liquor industry, fearful that women would support growing demands for the prohibition of alcohol, lobbied sympathetic Members of Parliament and organised their own counter-petitions. “ - https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/brief-history well the liquor industry is just fine…
And I end with an art work from 1885 https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/art-and-stage/visual-art/95742048/from-the-christchurch-art-gallerys-collection-among-the-sandhills
The dream machine I found very interesting. according to Everyday Electronics 1991, this emits pink noise, pink noise is advertised here to hypnotically induce deep sleep and claims dentist have used it to pull out teeth without anesthetic, sounds unethical but interesting so I did a bit of digging.
Pink Noise is “Pink noise is acoustical energy distributed uniformly by octave throughout the audio spectrum (the range of human hearing, approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz). Most people perceive pink noise as having uniform spectral power density – the same apparent loudness at all frequencies. In pink noise, the total sound power in each octave is the same as the total sound power in the octave immediately above or below it. An octave is a band whose highest frequency is exactly twice its lowest frequency.” - http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/pink-noise
This is a 10-hour video of pink noise, I think it almost sounds like water on a beach.
An interesting report in New Zealand Law Report VOL. 3 1885 was a case against Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company.
“The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR or W&MR) was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmerston North in the Manawatu, between 1881 and 1908, when it was acquired by the New Zealand Government Railways. Its successful operation in private ownership was unusual for early railways in New Zealand.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_and_Manawatu_Railway_Company
It was interesting to find out about this company as it was uncommon for privately owned railways to do well.
I went to the library's bottom floor where all the interesting books are, not necessarily the most useful, but, definitely the oldest and ones with the most potential to find something I wasn't expecting. Like the advertisement of the first correction pen from 1989!
I also found this book which is a book for teaching what I assume is primary level. An interesting quote I found is “Tigers bathe but cats hate water”. It was filled with poems, biology, geometry, anatomy, and a lot of general information that I found very interesting.
This was another school journal, however, this one was mainly focused on history and stories.
This book was from 1991 and gives a good idea about the electronic devices of the time and also the electronic knowledge of the time. Most of the devices I saw are similar to what you would find in kits in electronic stores now.
This book was full of law reports from 1885, It was the oldest one I could find.
This book was a collection of newspapers from the listener between 1988 and 1989. Seeing the styles used back then and the stories were very interesting.
Credit card with perks! seemed fun with all the Trump stuff going on now.
According to this article, all you need to get teens to school is enroll them in a choir.
This book I saw on my way out, basically just a compilation of room designs.
SAS Survival Guide:
How to survive any situation from the basics to long term.
Veterinary Physiology:
Everything you could ever need to know about how animals work and more. I found this interesting as it is very similar to our own physiology
Developing and Applying Biologically-Inspired Vision Systems:
Making artificial environments look real and how the brain reacts to visual stimuli. A collection of academic papers.
We have a window
We have a projector
Cool things happened
Potentially ditching wall idea
making it seem like a real storm
eden researching
Before posting more about our project I thought I might cover some of the basics of neuroscience regarding the EEG (electroencephalogram) displayed below.
Brainwave Frequencies:
Each brainwave frequency points to a specific brain function shown in the image below. Each electrode picks up all of the brainwave frequencies. A problem is the received frequencies include frequencies from general interference and these need to be filtered out or blocked with some sort of Faraday cage, generally they are filtered out by the EEG’s software based on your country.
Parts of the brain:
Current neuroscience believes each area of the brain to control certain functions.
From Back to Front:
“The Occipital Lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_lobe
“The parietal lobe functions in processing sensory information regarding the location of parts of the body as well as interpreting visual information and processing language and mathematics.” -http://study.com/academy/lesson/parietal-lobe-definition-functions-quiz.html
“The temporal lobe is involved in primary auditory perception, such as hearing, and holds the primary auditory cortex. The primary auditory cortex receives sensory information from the ears and secondary areas process the information into meaningful units such as speech and words.“ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe
“The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls important cognitive skills in humans, such as emotional expression, problem-solving, memory, language, judgment, and sexual behavior. It is, in essence, the “control panel” of our personality and our ability to communicate.” - https://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/frontal-lobe/male
“The frontal pole is one of the three poles of the brain (along with the occipital pole and temporal pole), and corresponds to the anterior-most rounded point of the frontal lobe.“ It is the frontmost (anterior) part of the frontal lobe - https://radiopaedia.org/articles/frontal-pole
Nasal:
For more spacial resolution a nasal electrode can be used, which is an electron that is placed inside the nasal cavity. This is relatively rare from my knowledge. It is most commonly used in more accurately diagnosing epilepsy patients - https://www.epilepsyresearch.org.uk/research_portfolio/recording-brain-activity-using-electrodes-placed-in-the-nose/
These areas are located as shown below:
How neurons work:
In certain conditions a neuron fires, this is called an action potential. An action potential is the rapid changing of charges (in the form of ions) that travel down the axon (like a cable for your body). Action potentials can be triggered by a number of things. Such as touch or any of your other senses, Chemicals in the brain, other neurons, or a direct electrical current (these are just a few).
Below is the graph of an action potential in humans, showing the voltage changes over time as the cell depolarizes then re-polarizes.
How an electrode gets a signal:
Any electrical current produces electromagnetic (EM) waves. The electrodes on the EEG are made to be extremely sensitive to these EM waves. The use of multiple electrodes can show what part of the brain signals are being sent and what kind. The more electrodes, generally the greater accuracy. Below are all the most common EEG electrode placements. The first letters represent each of the lobes explained above.
Best EEG for us:
We decided that the Emotiv Epoc+ would be best for our project due to the locations of the electrodes, the price, and it has an API for processing which we are programming most of the project in. It is displayed below:
If you want to learn more about neuroscience yourself look at mcb80x.org
References:
http://www.measurement.sk/2002/S2/Teplan.pdf
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13534-016-0235-1
We decided emotions was a bad idea due to ethical concern’s. We are worried people may be offended or upset by us “telling them” their emotions, also emotions are also seen as private in most cases.
The main ways to tell someones emotion are behavioral and expressions, both of those you can fake, however, with EEG you are literally reading their mind. This is also described in the report I mentioned in my last post: (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5458075/?reload=true)
Our new idea is to measure stress or rather how active the brain is. So, as the user tries to relax we can change the environment. We want to do this with a storm behind a window, which is along the lines of what Eden was researching with komorebi (木漏れ日)
There is also another common untranslatable word for a type of light in japanese knowen as kawa akari (川明かり) or light reflecting off a river.
So we basically want a window with a storm and rain projected onto it with sound effects that have different levels that change with the users brain activity read by the EEG. We would also like to use heart rate. I’m going to go and call this ame akari (雨明かり) light off rain.
I thought back to some research papers I read a while ago (Linked Below) about seeing users emotions with an EEG. This lead us to this brief: “Present An Informed environment developed off the users emotions”
I also remembered a device that uses this same idea made in the place where all the strangest things com from… Japan! It is a device worn around the waist and on the head. It is cat ears and a tail that move to the wearers emotions. They basically use the same technology that Murphy lent us, a 1 channel EEG. Because of this I am skeptical to how accurate they are. Here is the video:
Ears:
Tail:
One of the papers that lead me to think about emotions with EEG: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5458075/?reload=true
Murphy allowed us to borrow his 1 channel electroencephalogram (EEG) to play with. It measured 3 things, a blink, meditation, and attention. Not enough information to guess emotions but enough to control a few different things with concentration.
After playing with the one channel EEG we went to talk to AUT KEDRI, they have an emotiv epoc that we could use for our project, they just need to speak to their supervisor first. However, I noticed the device was corroded, the electrodes were dry and damaged, furthermore, we would need to submit a full brief and reasoning for needing the device where at this stage it is experimental and we don’t know exactly where our project will go. We do hope to get a rough working model by week 5 or 6 though as the finished project as a experience is due in week 7 of the project.
Our current brief is:
Investigate Mental and Physical Interfaces as an Interactive Experience.
Motion and Movement has different meanings in most fields. In physics, they describe how energy is transferred from potential to kinetic. In politics, they could describe a group of people that come together due to a similar set of beliefs. You can have movements of physical things and movements of non-physical things, for example, the movement of ideas. I’m interested in movements in the brain and how they affect the physical world and how the physical world affects the brain.
Something that was mentioned in class was teams of people who don’t know eachother think more creatively; however, teams that know eachother work more efficiently. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. It is the reason why when I enter a competition with a strict deadline I will choose people I know. However, if i want to make somethong that is unique and purely creative, i need new minds, both for my sake and theirs. With people you know, you already have synced with how they think and vice versa, whereas with someone new, you don’t know where your ideas will end up. So, i formed a group with people I didn’t really know, had a slightly similar idea, and lastly had a mixed range of skills and hobbies. Thus Sheet 7 was formed.
I was tasked with interrogating an inanimate physical object through creative means. I was also told this should have some sentimental value to me. I decided to interrogate a rose quartz crystal that my great grandad gave to me before he died.
My first iteration was seeing the effects of changing the hue and saturation of the crystal as seen in an earlier post.
I then played around adding the different images to a photoshop canvas to see what I cold make; this was the result:
Then I smoothed everything out by blurring the edges of the rocks and added some more detail to the rock:
I changed this design about 5 times before getting to this:
I then added an outline and fixed the edges with an eraser tool:
Lastly, I turned the contrast to 100% and the brightness down a bit, then changed the exposure level. This was to make the colors more vivid and look less faded to stand out more.
The color scheme I was going for was Vivid Pastel colors. I feel this shows both the true meaning of the rock to me, while also standing out more. I wanted to try to show emotions by the use of reds and purples. The asteroid about to strike represents how powerful a rock can be and the beauty of it.
At first, when starting this project I thought “Interrogating an object!?” I thought it was stupid. But now I see how creative you can get. I also learnt a bit more about how to use photoshop and how different colors can work together while also having a deeper meaning.
I started playing around with my picture of my Rose Quartz by changing the saturation and hue of the photo. Here were my results:
Original Photo:
Green:
Purple:
Red:
White:
Yellow:
Note: all I have changed in all the photos is the Hue and saturation. I think the red one is slightly over saturated but it was the only way to make it work. Also, it is a bit rough around the edges because I was going for that sort of look. Now I just need to figure out what to do from here.
Today I went to 3D lab’s Metal workshop and tried working with different metals. My end goal was to try to hammer the metal into a ring. I tried 3 types of metal, Copper, Steel, and Brass. My Idea was: I could break a piece of the crystal off and attach it to a ring. So, I wanted to see how hard that would be. I found brass was too brittle and I could not shape it at all with out it crumbling; copper was very easy to work with, but I was told it can rust and turn your finger green; steel was relatively easy to work with, but, also has the potential to rust.
It was said that the object you choose should have some sort of sentimental value. I thought for a very long time about what I could do, I try not to have things with great sentimental value. Then I thought of it, my Rose Quartz Crystal. My great grandad gave it to me before he died of lung cancer. He used to work as a miner. This crystal has always been very special to me and I have almost lost it a few times.
Today we were given the assessment of interrogating an inanimate object, with the example being a piece of obsidian. The volcanic glass was scanned with a computer scanner, then the image file was manually scrambled, then turned into a sound file. This was then used to make a tune/song. Originally I was left thinking how the heck do you go from “I have a rock” to “let’s turn it into a piece of music”… Then I realised it’s about experimenting, that's how creative thinking works, at the beginning he probably had no idea how it was going to turn out.
I have been slacking off on my blog posting so here is an update on the gas sensor.
My Idea, Smartsence, is a small personal gas detection device for use in industrial environments where toxic or explosive gases may be a threat. Gas sensors exist that are extremely accurate, however, these are generally fixed in place, extremely expensive, or have a narrow range of gases they sense. The target audience is mainly rescue crew or industrial workers as they have the highest risk and need for such a device, especially rescue crew who may not know what they are walking into. Chris Ramsay is helping me with the business side of this device currently. We have a prototype with our own custom circuitry and programming that is now ready to be tested.
We showed the prototype off at Colab mid-year showcase along with a promotional video that we made (shown above). The video could have been a lot better but due to time restrictions, we ran out of time to make it better. Many people were interested in the device and idea. A few people even gave us their contact details, one of which we are meeting up with next week. The next major stages for this product is testing and design. I will keep posting updates under #Project-Smart-Sense.
Domestic violence is a huge issue across the globe. I hope this video can serve as another voice speaking this problem, making it more known to the general public who don’t see domestic violence as a problem. Also for people in such a situation, I hope this video can show them to an escape or at least be another thing that adds up to an action.
I spent a large amount of time in the planning phase of this video, picking the right images and the best way to phrase my ideas that I wanted to get across. This was crucial as this is a very sensitive yet important topic. The video outlines key aspects of domestic violence and supporting facts.
The Fourth Annual Report: January 2013 to December 2013 By Wellington: Health Quality and Safety Commission was the report that really hit me that this was a huge issue in NZ. I spent a lot more time than I thought I would selecting images for the video, all the images needed to fit with what was being said and with the rest of the video. As I’ve learned in the past, all material in the video is royalty free and has no copyright. The facts I learned from making this video were shocking and depressing, something really needs to change. There are even people on the internet criticizing New Zealand for the shocking domestic violence rates.
I would have liked to have spent more time on this video, refining and adding. However, I am happy with the outcome. This video changed my way of thinking a little, I knew all about domestic violence before, but, rather than just getting depressed over it, now I want to make a difference. This video may not, but, maybe I can eventually to someone, someday.
References:
Agre, P. E. (1997). Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI. In Bowker et al (Eds.), Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work. Erlbaum.
Committee, Family Violence Death Review. (2014). Fourth Annual Report: January 2013 to December 2013. Wellington: Health Quality and Safety Commission. Retrieved from http://www.hqsc.govt.nz/our-programmes/mrc/fvdrc/publications-and-resources/publication/1600/
Leask, A. (2017, 3 26). Family violence: 525,000 New Zealanders harmed every year. Retrieved from The New Zealand Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11634543
We decided the best way to show off our prototype once it is finished is in a film styled similar to a crowdfunding video.
We needed a way to test the device, so we talked to the lab manager in the science department about using some lab equipment to test our device. she said we would need to complete a hazard report and have a lecture send it to her. Clint said he would be happy to send it and check it for us. I then helped some people in studio with electronics and programming.
Later I did calculations determining the amount of gas the sensor should detect and I learnt about Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) which is the minimum amount of gas needed for combustion. If the device could detect the gas before it hit that level, It could save a life. (citation needed)
For Butane I found the LEL to be 1.5% which is 0.015m^3 gas in 1 m^3 of air. It doesn’t seem like much, but, it could be the difference between life and death.(citation needed)
Reflecting on our project so far, I think it has real potential in a real market. I think one thing both Chris and I struggle with, however, is knowing what studio wants. Both of us are so used to how school and other uni courses work that this way of learning and presenting ideas can be difficult to understand. That said I agree more with this style of learning; I think schools do not implement enough creative practice and generally end up destroying any chances of it showing.
This looks interesting, going back to the sound project. I want to eventually get my hands on a Teensy.
After talking to Ricardo about our idea and getting feedback about how we should go about submitting it, we headed to meet with the SCRUM Master from NZ Post, which by the way I think is the coolest name ever, way better than Project Manager.
After learning about agile project management we made a board filled with all our ‘stories’ and 'tasks’. This was quite a lengthy process and also surprisingly difficult as we needed to break everything up into tasks. However, the hardest part that I found was predicting how long each task would take. After finishing our board I can see how it will make our jobs easier as now we can visualize everything we need to do and get an idea on when we should finish everything.
We then decided to try our chances at the local fire department, by this I mean see if they would have any interest in our product at all. What we found was amazing, they seemed to love the idea! Of course just explaining the idea isn’t enough, we need to get a prototype working so we can give it to a firefighter and truly measure its effectiveness.
We spoke to Steve, who is a Senior Station Officer. He gave us the contact details for the person who handles new equipment for firefighters.
After talking to Steve, however, we also realized the whole design had to be completely redone, less civilian focused and more worker focused. A firefighter doesn’t want anything else to put on, neither do they want something complicated to use, it’s just something else to add to training. They also don’t want something they always need to charge either. So, the device has to last on battery for a long time, say a month; the device should attach to the equipment they already have; It has to be easy to use, in both UI and in the stress of an emergency.
After getting back home we both did some research into events in the news involving firefighters that our device could have prevented, or at least saved a life. What we found was surprising to me. There were numerous occasions where a device like ours could have saved many lives. That leaves me with the question it makes me wonder why this hasn’t been done before now.
Reflecting on today I realize how quick I went from thinking my Idea was amazing to completely reworking it, I mentioned this to Clint and he said: “Yes, that’s called learning”. I also had my first real experience of giving a product pitch, I think it needs some refining though. Today could have been more productive on the hardware side, however, I think it was still a fairly productive day.
The Bachelor Creative Technologies (BCT) has been an extreme and bizarre journey and it is only just the beginning. As semester one is coming to an end it is an appropriate time to reflect on what I have done and what I have learned so far. In this post I will reflect on all of my blog posts from this semester and discover where I have improved and also where I still need to improve.
My first blog post was brief to say the least, literally just stating my design for my card game. Back then I didn’t know what I was supposed to write or how to blog in general. Before the course I did not blog let alone read blogs, so I had nothing to base my posts off. However, over time my posts did improve, getting more in depth and reflective in the process, as I read more blogs and wrote more blogs.
Up until the day this was written I struggle with my at least one post a day schedule. At first I thought it was a complete waste of time, but now, I see why it is important. I’m slowly developing a better blogging habit and writing more. It was probably halfway through the cards for play project that I started to try being reflective, however, I still didn’t see the point.
It wasn’t until after the sound project that I started to see the point of reflective practice. I feel like the sound project’s final post was the first time I properly reflected on something. As the project was over 3 weeks I could look all the way to the start of the project and see everything I did and everything I learned. Looking back on the final blog post for the sound project, I can see the things I learned and reflect on them again to see if I have implemented them into my next projects to see if I am truly improving.
I feel like I need to blog a lot more to tell if reflective practice is truly helpful in developing creativeness and improving myself all together. However, with the blogs I have I can tell I am at least improving. I think I still need to work on reflecting more deeply on what I learnt and not just what I physically learnt.
My biggest area of improvement that I have noticed is I haven’t been blogging about the Introduction to Creative Technologies (ICT) paper. I have a good schedule for blogging about studio and I have almost a post per day, however, I have hardly any ICT blog posts. This made understanding the ICT paper very difficult for me as it mainly covered concepts of creative technologies and ways to learn. I think ICT is as, if not, more important to blog about than our studio projects. Furthermore, I find the point of ICT hard to understand. I think if I blogged more about each class I might have better understood what we learnt
In conclusion, I feel my reflective practice has improved from the start of the semester, however, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I need to reflect more on the ICT paper and not just focus on the studio projects. I should also focus on reflectance on skills that I learnt other than the physical ones. I need to change my reflection from forced to more natural now that I see how useful reflective practice is.
This relates to what we had to do for the film project. Someone might find it interesting.
I used something that I thought I would never use again… algebra. Okay, that was a joke, but still…
After evacuating our building and fleeing through toxic smoke, we headed away from the sirens towards Chris’s apartment. We then without wasting any time, worked on getting the sensor working. Over the course of the night, we managed to get a reading from the sensor. By holding a lighter with the gas on next to the sensor, it printed a warning message to an SSH terminal.
For those wondering about the fire, It wasn’t our building. However, there was a lot of smoke. I’m glad I had a mask with me. Here's a news article: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/05/major-fire-billows-from-auckland-central-skycraper.html
The part I was impressed with was we lacked a few parts yet we made it work with some bodging. First, we didn’t have a logic level converter as the sensor worked on 5v and the raspberry pi works on 3.3v. So we decided to fix this with a voltage divider. To make the voltage divider we needed a value of resistor that I didn’t have (which is a first for me). Furthermore, we didn't even have the right capacitor for the voltage regulator circuit.
How did we fix all this when all the shops are closed? WITH MATH!
I worked out we could add up smaller resistors in series to make the right value for the voltage divider and we can add up capacitors in parallel to make the right capacitor value. The math was actually very simple, all stuff that NCEA teaches in year 12:
For managing our programming we decided to use git, this helped up both work on the same thing, as well as, automatically updating to the raspberry pi for testing. We chose to program the sensor in python.
By some late/early hour in the morning/night, we had a sensor that read levels of flammable gasses in the air. I think this is a good starting point as far as testing goes.
Reflecting back on today, we mainly focused on the hardware, should something change, this time could be wasted and we only have 3 weeks to have something complete. We have the skills and the ideas, however, we are lacking something, I’m not sure what yet. I also still have no idea how we are going to submit this. Next week it looks like we will also be implementing agile development, which I will try to cover in my next blog post.
Today I took a majority of my circuitry development components into studio through the pouring rain, luckily the important things didn’t get too wet, but, I was soaked. With the equipment now in the studio, I could talk with Chris about how we are going to put it together and what I should involve. We came up with some Ideas of a final look for the prototype and also how the warnings would be displayed on the screen, speaking of which, we also brought the screen today from a New Zealand seller, hopefully, it will arrive early next week.
We also talked about the viability of the project as a product including target markets. It now looks like this project is going towards the path of miners, firefighters, or Civil Defense, as these people would be more likely to need a warning to toxic gasses and also know what to do should they be detected. Another idea we could expand on is all the data going to a monitoring station for the organization, for example, miners can wear the device and have the air quality and their vital signs remotely monitored by staff so if something goes wrong they have more data to work with when trying to solve the problem.
Today I planned to make a plan. I made goals for each week, now I plan to break them up into smaller tasks. The goals are: Week One, Read from the sensor; Week Two, Display on the screen; Week Three, expand on functionality, test, and get feedback on its usefulness with the target market.
I also formed a project partner, Chris, for this project who will help with the programming and also look into the viability of the product. His Blog can be found here: https://karia-technologies.tumblr.com/
Overall, the goal for the next three weeks is to create a prototype to test the usefulness of such a device and look into the marketing of it. If we can we will also talk to some people in industry’s that may benefit from such a device.
Today I had to decide on which project to pursue next. After going over many ideas I decided on something related to my film. A device that could be worn and monitor toxic gasses and give a warning if the level goes above a threshold. This relates to the e-waste speculative design as it could monitor the buildup of toxic gasses. Tomorrow I will need to make a plan on how I will lay the project out over the next 3 weeks and what my end goal is.
This solves Everything!
Advanced technology is all you need to solve the problem of e-waste…
Video:
Description:
This is a short film set in the near future that tracks a speculative device that will solve all of our E-Waste problems… or will it? The idea behind the film is the idea of a device that tracks the lifespan of electronics so they can be collected to be recycled, this is monitored and controlled by an AI so, of course, it all goes wrong; just not the way you would think.
What we did
In the first week, we worked out the script (The direction of the script was James’ idea.
In the second week, we did almost all of the filming.
In the third and final week, we did all of the editing and a recording to tie everything together better.
While completing this project, we hade a lot of late nights and some days we don’t even remember what we did. This is slightly worrying and I think there is no real solution, one thing that helps me to remember what had happened is to read my blog and see what we did.
Thoughts
I liked the group structure that we implemented. We used a structure without a single ‘leader’, instead we changed lead roles depending on our strengths, for example, James was a leader during script stage and I was a leader during Editing stage as those are our strengths. In terms of the film I like the way the picture images turned out and also the overall storyline, as in the beginning it didn’t make much sense, but, now it does.
I disliked the way the nametags turned out, however, this was mainly because they were the last thing we did and we did not give shades much time to do them. The Quality of the LAWS graphic could have been better, but, the reason it looks low quality was mostly because of the late decision to zoom in on it. So, James was not to know to export it at a crazy resolution or as a scalable vector graphic (SVG). Another thing that annoys me but we didn’t have time to fix was the mistake in the PSA 2025 take which is not that noticeable but it is there.
What I Would Do Differently Next Time?
Take better care when recording a scene and take more takes than I think I would need, this would have stopped me having to use a take with a mistake in it and not having time to edit it out.
What I learned (The Important Part)
A big learning area for me was how to share leadership, our group changed leadership for each section depending on the strengths of the members. I also learned that different adobe versions are only backward compatible, for example when I send the project from my Adobe CS6 to shades to edit on Adobe CC it was fine, however, when shades gave the file back to me I could not open it at all no matter what we tried.
Copyright
Copyright is a very important as by not taking it into consideration, it can get you in big trouble. Some of the photos and sounds in our video are not owned by us and have a Creative Commons license, meaning we can use the content, however, we must give credit where it is due. Shades made sure all of the licenses could work together and formatted the references.
References:
Attribution for creative commons images:
“It’s Alive!” by Steve Jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0“Tesla Motors Assembly Line” by Steve Jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0“Shall We Play a Game?” by Steve Jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0“Fraunhofer Face Finder” by Steve Jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0“Guiyu e-waste” by Bert van Dijk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Guiyu e-waste“ by Bert van Dijk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Guiyu e-waste” by Bert van Dijk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Bao'an sports Center Shenzhen” by Chris (dcmaster) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Attribution for creative commons audio:
Memory by Creo is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
A warning to all, STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING and UPDATE your computer. On Windows 10, go to settings, update and security and hit check for updates or install, then click restart now. There is a ransomware pandemic going around the internet that is using software stolen from the NSA, Link:
http://thehackernews.com/2017/05/wannacry-ransomware-unlock.html
Windows has patched the vulnerability in the latest update. If you become infected I would recommend not paying the ransom as you are supporting them and they probably won’t give your files back anyway. Please share this as updating is the key to protecting yourself and your files from this virus.
Today we finished all the main editing, the only things left is the typography and color grading. To my surprise, we were the only group that came in. I made use of this by plugging my laptop into the projector for editing.
We came in on Saturday so we could complete it on time. I don't think it was because of poor time management that we had to come in, but rather some things took longer than we initially thought they would. Another factor was we tried lots of different things as we were unsure how to make it all make sense so that also took up a bit of time.
As a fail safe, when I was done editing I exported a non-color graded/non-typographied version of the video. This is just so we have a backup to submit on the deadline in case something goes wrong, however, the final version should be of higher quality.
Today we worked hard on editing. I Completed all of the cuts and put all of the scenes in the right place. Shades worked out the color grading and completed the image montages of GuiYu and AI.
I’m now realizing anyone reading this probably has no idea whats going on or what I'm talking about. For those people don’t worry about it… It’ll all make sense when we post the finalized film.
The graphic after the PSA explaining everything was a little difficult, mostly because it had been a while since I did work with key-frames. James drew a graphic of the LORS process and I zoomed in on it and panned across then zoomed out.
Overall I would call this a pretty productive day, however, not productive enough as we will have to also come in tomorrow (Saturday) to do some overtime work so it is completed on time.
I was just thinking, editing all of this would be so much easier if all of the files were in one place rather than exchanging external hard drives all of the time. Then it hit me, this is why professional companies that do editing or any form of production have high-speed servers, so multiple people can work on the same project at the same time. I definitely think if I do this again I will set up a file server of some kind to edit on. It not only ensures we all have the right versions of things but also keeps a backup if something goes wrong.
Today we worked on a game plan, deciding what is left to do and decided we needed to film another clip. James and I went off to film the scene leaving shades and Jacob. Jacob went home to record the voice over we need and shades kept working on the color grading and the image montage. My next task is to finish the editing incorporating feedback we got today from people in studio and also others in the group.
Our Reporter was a bit tired by the end of it:
This night was my first time attending a Tea Ceremony. I was fascinated by all the small details that were so carefully detailed and the discipline necessary to get everything perfect right down to how many times you wipe the spatula. The ceremony got me thinking about the small details in film also; Often these small details won’t even be noticed until the third rewatch if at all. These small touches make all the difference, however, they will most likely never be noticed, yet without them, you immediately see the difference.
I thought this might be interesting to blog about for two reasons, caffeine, and random thoughts. I was given Caffeine earlier today and I’m still debating whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Furthermore, I had tea at the Chaji, so more caffeine…
DVD also stands for Dissociated vertical deviation in Ophthalmology. I was researching a way we could release our film on blue ray and DVD… However, not a disk. Literally on a ray of blue light and something else DVD could stand for. I don’t see much point actually releasing the film on disk. It was interesting that DVD stands for an eye disorder, however, I don’t think I can really use that information; just another random fact that will float in my head for a while and then come out at the least expected time.
Bonus fact: Blue Ray is a species of fish in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean also called Neoraja caerulea.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociated_vertical_deviation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophthalmology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_(optics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoraja_caerulea
Today we booked the editing room on level 2; We used this to work on editing and planning. I did some work on the editing, James worked on graphics, and Jacob worked on fixing up the script. At the same time shades was getting feedback on the raw cut from people in studio.
Advanced technology is all you need to solve the problem of e-waste…
Coming this May on Blue Ray and DVD